Early signs of crime with bitcoin.

[oktana]

Sadly, we can't do anything about that. As far as Bitcoin is decentralized and allows anyone to use it without providing private documents/sensitive information, there's no way to stop crimes executed with Bitcoin. And that's not unusual because every good thing always have that bad part. The only thing I think we can do is to use Bitcoin properly to set examples. This way, we may be making about 10% effort.

[verita1]

Criminals will never end they are all over the world, be it the usual criminals such as drug cartels, organized crime, gang members or in this case cyber criminals. People should not take cyber criminals into account as an excuse not to invest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. IMO, people should gain knowledge about cryptocurrencies with the means we have (Social networks, TV, Internet, etc.) so that they can take advantage of and overcome the crisis in which we are currently living.

[stomachgrowls]

When the world is gradually accepting bitcoin, the already made bitcoiners are using those little opportunity to commit various crimes with bitcoin.
  A Russian was sentenced to French prison for bitcoin laundering.
 Source : https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-paris-money-laundering-bitcoin-russia-61b5109e954f494b80d51c452b3b18e2

Well, yesterday there was a thread on this forum saying only 1% of total bitcoin usage is related to illegal activity. It looks like you have found one of these few criminals using bitcoin which belongs to this tiny 1%. If we compare this percentage with the percentage of illegal activity though fiat currency we will conclude bitcoin is much less used in a wrong way than fiat.

Bitcoin illicit transactions are less than 1%

How these numbers to be accurate that 1% of bitcoin usage does involved illegal activity? Im aint saying that this is rampant but im bit sure that it is higher that 1%
but how we do consider the percentage on this one with fiat? 

With anonymity and being decentralized then theres no doubt that these are the best recipes on committing illegal things.It isnt intended for such usage but
there are people who would make use this advantage.

[AmoreJaz]

Criminals will never end they are all over the world, be it the usual criminals such as drug cartels, organized crime, gang members or in this case cyber criminals. People should not take cyber criminals into account as an excuse not to invest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. IMO, people should gain knowledge about cryptocurrencies with the means we have (Social networks, TV, Internet, etc.) so that they can take advantage of and overcome the crisis in which we are currently living.

exactly! everywhere, whether in fiat or crypto, there will always be crime. so if you are afraid of the crime committed by such entity, then, one should be afraid of touching fiat, right? so yeah, it is all up to you if you will believe all these negativities. it is on you how you will use it appropriately and to your advantage.
i guess, ignorance is also a big factor why they perceive things on a different perspective

[ultrloa]

Criminals will never end they are all over the world, be it the usual criminals such as drug cartels, organized crime, gang members or in this case cyber criminals. People should not take cyber criminals into account as an excuse not to invest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. IMO, people should gain knowledge about cryptocurrencies with the means we have (Social networks, TV, Internet, etc.) so that they can take advantage of and overcome the crisis in which we are currently living.

exactly! everywhere, whether in fiat or crypto, there will always be crime. so if you are afraid of the crime committed by such entity, then, one should be afraid of touching fiat, right? so yeah, it is all up to you if you will believe all these negativities. it is on you how you will use it appropriately and to your advantage.
i guess, ignorance is also a big factor why they perceive things on a different perspective

To many misconception regarding to this as others think that there are so many crimes by using bitcoin since they see so much from it on social media sites but in reslity almost all means of transaction whether its fiat,gold or what other assets which have value is used for fraudulent activities thats why we shouldn't be one sided on possibilities. If our ignorance will make use go away by using bitcoin well we might get outdated on new technology.

[Sithara007]

I don't know whether Alexander Vinnik is actually guilty of the crimes they are accusing him of. As far as I know, he was one of the owners of BTC-e (although he is denying this), and that exchange was one of the very few which stood up to the authorities and refused to do KYC of its users. And that may be the real reason why he is being imprisoned. All these money laundering charges - I don't think that there is any truth in them. The authorities can make up stories and they are experts in that. We have already seen that during the trial of Ross Ulbricht.

[AniviaBtc]

Ponzi schemes using bitcoin are increasing when these adoptions are prevailing in our society.

Scammers will do anything and will go with the trend when people or investors are eager to invest on it and make it grow instantly.

We can't really fully make them vanish as there are people who will really make crimes just to keep themselves from poverty and crisis.

[uneng]

When the world is gradually accepting bitcoin, the already made bitcoiners are using those little opportunity to commit various crimes with bitcoin.
  A Russian was sentenced to French prison for bitcoin laundering.
 Source : https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-paris-money-laundering-bitcoin-russia-61b5109e954f494b80d51c452b3b18e2

Well, yesterday there was a thread on this forum saying only 1% of total bitcoin usage is related to illegal activity. It looks like you have found one of these few criminals using bitcoin which belongs to this tiny 1%. If we compare this percentage with the percentage of illegal activity though fiat currency we will conclude bitcoin is much less used in a wrong way than fiat.

Bitcoin illicit transactions are less than 1%

How these numbers to be accurate that 1% of bitcoin usage does involved illegal activity? Im aint saying that this is rampant but im bit sure that it is higher that 1%
but how we do consider the percentage on this one with fiat?  

You can check the full report on the link I provided above. It was a study conducted by a blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis, which resulted on that 1%.

And fiat illegal transactions are between 2%-4%, higher than bitcoin. They probably take the statistics of all fiat transactions during a fixed period of time and calculate from this total amount what percentage match the illegal activities on that same period, so they have an estimation.

With anonymity and being decentralized then theres no doubt that these are the best recipes on committing illegal things.It isnt intended for such usage but
there are people who would make use this advantage.

After all, it seems bitcoin isn't so anonymous like people imagine.

[DrearyUrbanite]

When the world is gradually accepting bitcoin, the already made bitcoiners are using those little opportunity to commit various crimes with bitcoin.
  A Russian was sentenced to French prison for bitcoin laundering.
 Source : https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-paris-money-laundering-bitcoin-russia-61b5109e954f494b80d51c452b3b18e2

Well, yesterday there was a thread on this forum saying only 1% of total bitcoin usage is related to illegal activity. It looks like you have found one of these few criminals using bitcoin which belongs to this tiny 1%. If we compare this percentage with the percentage of illegal activity though fiat currency we will conclude bitcoin is much less used in a wrong way than fiat.

Bitcoin illicit transactions are less than 1%

How these numbers to be accurate that 1% of bitcoin usage does involved illegal activity? Im aint saying that this is rampant but im bit sure that it is higher that 1%
but how we do consider the percentage on this one with fiat?  

You can check the full report on the link I provided above. It was a study conducted by a blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis, which resulted on that 1%.

And fiat illegal transactions are between 2%-4%, higher than bitcoin. They probably take the statistics of all fiat transactions during a fixed period of time and calculate from this total amount what percentage match the illegal activities on that same period, so they have an estimation.

With anonymity and being decentralized then theres no doubt that these are the best recipes on committing illegal things.It isnt intended for such usage but
there are people who would make use this advantage.

After all, it seems bitcoin isn't so anonymous like people imagine.

Does the study refer to BTC only? Would be interesting to know because there is also Monero and other coins which are more likely to be used by criminals. Ca Chainalysis do anything about those anonymity coins?

[Shasha80]

I think the main reason why Bitcoin is still rejected by some countries is not because Bitcoin is widely used for crimes. Because if we look at the data,
of course, fiat is still more widely used for crime, I think this is just an excuse for the government to look for something bad about Bitcoin. In fact,
the government is only afraid that Bitcoin will replace fiat in the future. So a lot of crime news using Bitcoin is exaggerated.

[Gaaara]

Crimes happens everywhere it is inevitable that bitcoin will be used for it too, to be fair laundering happens to fiat more often than to bitcoin, and as far as I'm concerned if crimes with bitcoin happens more frequent than of fiat I don't see any problem using it, I will still rather have my assets digitally than to put it in a bank that has less than 1% increase of investment. Bitcoin is more versatile so as long as these type of crime can be caught then it doesn't bother me that much.

[xiboothrezi]

~ Bitcoin is more versatile so as long as these type of crime can be caught then it doesn't bother me that much.

for a criminal, anything can be used as a crime. basically, it all depends on who is using it. let alone bitcoin, which is full of controversy, something that is common in society can be used for crime too.

when bitcoin, which is still the pros and cons in society, is used as a criminal tool, it will become big news, and many are increasingly afraid to use it. whereas, as you say, the facts are not that terrible as long as we are willing and able to adapt well.

[Lorence.xD]

Crimes happens everywhere it is inevitable that bitcoin will be used for it too, to be fair laundering happens to fiat more often than to bitcoin, and as far as I'm concerned if crimes with bitcoin happens more frequent than of fiat I don't see any problem using it, I will still rather have my assets digitally than to put it in a bank that has less than 1% increase of investment. Bitcoin is more versatile so as long as these type of crime can be caught then it doesn't bother me that much.

With bitcoin getting more recognition, I think that we are going to see more bitcoin related laundering since more people are going to know about it. You are right that bitcoin is versatile and that it won't be a problem if the crimes are caught but the problem is that crimes overtime get more crafty as time goes by.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

for a criminal, anything can be used as a crime. basically, it all depends on who is using it. let alone bitcoin, which is full of controversy, something that is common in society can be used for crime too.

when bitcoin, which is still the pros and cons in society, is used as a criminal tool, it will become big news, and many are increasingly afraid to use it. whereas, as you say, the facts are not that terrible as long as we are willing and able to adapt well.

The people who doesn't think that as bitcoin becomes more popular then the less likely it is going to be used for illicit activities is delusional, as @xiboothrezi says, criminal minds are going to use any means to do the thing that they do.

[haidil]

When the world is gradually accepting bitcoin, the already made bitcoiners are using those little opportunity to commit various crimes with bitcoin.
  A Russian was sentenced to French prison for bitcoin laundering.
 Source : https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-paris-money-laundering-bitcoin-russia-61b5109e954f494b80d51c452b3b18e2
It is also said that this is not his first crime using crypto currency.
 This are one of the reasons crypto is still rejected .
 What are your thoughts on these?.
 

It is very true that if it is seen in short it can be used for crime, for that the government must take part in controlling crypto. if used in a good way, there are many benefits

[isaac_clarke22]

Ponzi schemes using bitcoin are increasing when these adoptions are prevailing in our society.

Scammers will do anything and will go with the trend when people or investors are eager to invest on it and make it grow instantly.

We can't really fully make them vanish as there are people who will really make crimes just to keep themselves from poverty and crisis.

Bitcoin or not, ponzi scheme still exists outside crypto.
It is quite sad, because Bitcoin is being blamed for these scams while it is just a medium or an instrument for payment like fiat does except it isn't personal or p2p.

[bosede1]

To everything in life we will always have scammers and launderers, just imagine duping you of your own money this is bank-related so this sort is not starting today and because of the bad people or influencers the crypto world can't be out, down, or closed.

[big kid]

Some people will always find a way to make a crime. With btc, altcoins or even fiat. LOL fiat was used for centuries in crime world.

[uneng]

Does the study refer to BTC only? Would be interesting to know because there is also Monero and other coins which are more likely to be used by criminals. Ca Chainalysis do anything about those anonymity coins?

They claim the study refers to crypto currencies in general, between 2017-2020 time period. So I believe monero and other coins are included.
Talking about bitcoin specifically the percentage of illegal activity is even lower, reaching to 0,5% compared to the total volume of transactions.

[DrearyUrbanite]

Does the study refer to BTC only? Would be interesting to know because there is also Monero and other coins which are more likely to be used by criminals. Ca Chainalysis do anything about those anonymity coins?

They claim the study refers to crypto currencies in general, between 2017-2020 time period. So I believe monero and other coins are included.
Talking about bitcoin specifically the percentage of illegal activity is even lower, reaching to 0,5% compared to the total volume of transactions.

I see, makes sense for Bitcoin as it is relatively easily traceable unless you use shady on and off ramps (exchanges without any KYC at all). The risk is of course to get scammed when you deposit at such exchanges.

In the end any money will be used to commit crimes, no matter what the type of money is. Digital, cash, pseudonymous or anonymous, it doesn't matter.

Even centralized digital money will eventually be used to commit crimes. There are always ways to play the system and criminals will find those ways.